Adobe Goes Subscription Service

Is this new news? I just heard that Adobe is going to monthly or yearly subscription services for its products:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/buying-guide.displayTab4.html

Which will account for upgrades as well. While the month-to-month cost (even with a year’s commitment) is more than the overall product cost (especially on a 2-year dev cycle) this seems to me to be well worth it. Hell I can afford Photoshop now to go along with Lightroom.

— Alan

Yes, Ars Technica had an article about that as well. I understand it’s just an option for people who would only use some Adobe application occasionally, though. You can still buy a normal license and it’s still cheaper over time.

Once you’re in a long-term sub though you can go to upgrade editions, which is nice. I figure Photoshop will bump up next year, so in that instance it’d be well worth it. Seriously thinking about this… if I do I’ll let everyone know how it works :)

— Alan

The cost is way too high for me. Being able to get immediate upgrades is pretty nice, but I tend to upgrade every other version as well. If I was using these apps every day, and the upgrade cycle was frequent enough, it might be more worth it.

It’s too bad they couldn’t bring the pricing closer to the Microsoft Action pack range. It’s something like $400/year to access just about any Microsoft software you’d ever need (with multiple licenses in many cases). I’ve been a long-term subscriber to that and it’s definitely paid off. If Adobe would bring the Master Collection cost down into that range, I might actually consider it.